572769 - About Thunderbird Dialogue: Provide easier way of copying full version string

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Thunderbird :: General, enhancement)

Description

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

STR

1 be committed bug triager
2 need to copy full version string from About Thunderbird dialogue very often (for triaging reference in bugs and comments)

Actual result:
- too many steps & clicks for such a tedious yet frequent action

Expected result:
- less steps to copy the version string, ideally: one-step copying
- copying the version string is one of the most important functions of this dialogue, we should make it easier/faster

Ideas/Proposals:
(having any one, some, or all of these proposals implemented would be helpful)

1) one-step copying
a) when showing the about dialogue (it has focus), just pressing Ctrl+C (without prior selection) should copy the full version string
- optionally make this tweak more discoverable by adding "Press Ctrl+C to copy the version string" as a tooltip on the version string (or even plaintext on the dialogue).
b) we might add a small link for copying after the version string, like this:
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.4) Gecko/20100608 Lightning/1.0b2 Thunderbird/3.1 (_Copy_)
- clicking on the link will copy the full version string to clipboard

2) two-step coyping
a) when version string has focus/cursor, but no selection, Ctrl+C should copy the full version string
b) when showing the dialogue, first pressing <tab> should select/highlight the full version string (instead of just showing a cursor at the end of the version string, as we do now). There's really not much else you can do with the version string apart from copying it, and in 95% of cases, we need all of it.
c) when right-clicking on the version string, Copy command should be enabled on the context menu even if there's no selection -> copy full version string (as we now do with the subject in the email header)

It may seem small, but for thousands of bugs and comments where we expect the full version string to be added for reference, it's thousands of tedious clicks saved... ;)

Comments welcome
- what ye think (usability/feasibility)?
- which proposal is/are easiest to implement?
- can you implement one?

Comment 1

[Ludovic Hirlimann [:Usul]]

This would easily fit into an extension. I don't think normal user need that hence resolving WONTFIX. 

Adding Gary as he might take up the "challenge" of writing the extension.

Comment 2

[[:Aureliano Buendía]]

It's already provided by "Nightly Tester Tool" addon

Comment 3

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

Following the "If it ain't broke, break it" recipe, this has regressed so that there's now *no way at all* to copy the string (while FF at least allows mouse-click > Ctrl+A > Ctrl+C to copy the string).
So the proposed fix for followup bug 708550 (bug 708550, comment 1) might do something beneficial along the lines of this bug, without any downsides.